Prime Minister Jean Chretien fired up a few clay pigeons on cradle-to-grave welfare reform to test the marksmanship of the opposition, media and pressure groups. After a few successful hits on target, the PM has now been forced to distance himself from the scene of the crime.

Pundits from the Left and Right wasted no time in torpedoing the Prime Minister's search for a lasting legacy. Even the left-leaning Caledon Institute deep-sixed the 'one-size-fits-all' guaranteed annual income idea.

The Official Opposition in Ottawa and some media outlets were so outraged by the plan as to suggest that the Prime minister was acting out of character, as though turning public policy on a dime after a federal election was something out of the ordinary. Lest we forger Chretien's about face on the Free Trade Agreement and the GST after the 1993 election.

Chretien's patented flip-flops and betrayals call to mind the story of the scorpion and the frog. Both meet on the bank of a stream. The scorpion asks the frog to carry him across on its back. The frog asks, "How do I know you won't sting me?" The scorpion says, "Because if I do, I will die too." The frog is satisfied, and they set out. But in midstream, the scorpion stings the frog. Knowing they both will drown, the frog asks, "Why?" Replies the scorpion: "It's my nature..."

If the federal election was the stream that carried Jean Chretien to victory, then the electors were the toads who were set up for a another betrayal, this time from a costly multi-billion dollar welfare plan that came like a bolt from the blue.

The one guarantee Canadians could count on should his plan prevail is entrenched tutelage to the state, an extended period of servitude to the national debt and taxpayer misery for many years to come. The war against the debt and high taxes will all but be forgotten if Ottawa tacks left and sets the stage for program spending of epic proportions.

Now is not the time to turn on the spending taps. Canadians rich and poor are still being pummeled by high taxes. Statistics Canada just reported that income taxes are still the number one expenditure for Canadian households, eclipsing shelter, transportation and food.

The Prime Minister's reply is that Canadians should move to the US if they want tax cuts - a corollary to the American version, "if you don't like it, go to Russia." Maybe that's not such a bad idea.

The former communist nerve-centre is now experiencing a free-enterprise renaissance. Principal economic advisor to the government, Dr. Andrei Illarionov recently spoke to the Frontier Centre for Public Policy in Winnipeg on the merits of Russia's 13 percent flat tax plan.

"I have a magical solution for countries to get rich quickly," said Illarionov. "It's called economic freedom, which means… minimum intervention form the state."

A so-called free-enterprise country like Canada could take a few cues from our neighbour to the north. Now that cradle-to-grave welfare has been filed away, the Chretien government can work on Canada's economic freedom. Delivering on its Red Book pledge of tax cuts and debt relief would make for a good start.